Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina

2017 Clinical Research Fellowship

• $60,000 for 1-year fellowship salary
• $10,000 for Fellow tuition to support formal education in clinical research methodology at the applicant’s institution or elsewhere after completion of the Fellow’s initial first year fellowship
• Complimentary AANEM Annual Meeting registration for Fellow to present completed research
• $1,500 for the Fellow to attend the AANEM Annual Meeting when the research is presented

Project Title

Validation of the Triple Timed-Up-and-Go Test as a measure of disease severity in Lambert Eaton Myasthenia patients

Project Summary

Dr. Raja is using this funding to validate a new outcome measure in Lambert Eaton myasthenia (LEM) and complete a rigorous didactic training program appropriate to her interest in outcome measure development.
 
Dr. Raja’s research objective is to validate that the Triple Timed-Up-and-Go test (3TUG) test can be used as a measure of disease severity in patients with LEM. This walking test targets the muscle groups most associated with LEM disability, thereby making it a relevant clinical measure of severity in this condition. A pivotal clinical trial of 3,4-diaminopyridine free base (DAP) in the US used the 3TUG test as the primary outcome.
 
“We will use existing data from a completed pivotal trial of DAP to correlate 3TUG times with patient and clinician reported outcomes and objective electrophysiologic assessments of neuromuscular function,” said Dr. Raja. “We hypothesize that 3TUG lap times will correlate with other measures of disease severity and have the potential to be a useful tool for assessing treatment response in the clinic.”